Mr. Speaker, the minister's sincerity as usual is obvious and his ego enormous.

Public attention to security intelligence and terrorism has focused the spotlight on Liberal mismanagement and inaction.

The years of cuts to military, security intelligence, the coast guard and ports policing have had a detrimental impact on our real and perceived ability to protect Canadians. The minister responsible for public security told the foreign affairs committee yesterday that we may now need a new security ministry.

Never mind the reversal, why did the minister take so long to break previous promises on this file? Why did it take him so long to figure it out?

Mr. Speaker, I would refer the member to the report that I tabled in the House yesterday, the annual report of the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency. If he looks at that report, he will see that in recent years we have increased substantially the resources, the funding and the human resources to security matters.

As well, even the attorney general in the United States, Mr. Ashcroft, is talking about the good cooperation between our intelligence agency and its agency. We are also cooperating with others around the world, so we are doing our job.

Mr. Speaker, the government's insistence that any help for the cattle industry must come from existing programs is simply not defensible.

The food inspection agency several years ago dismissed the possibility of mad cow disease in Canada, saying that it was a European disease. In other words, it could not happen here; except that it has.

Loan guarantees from existing programs are not the answer. The cattle industry needs an understandable, bankable cash advance and it needs it PDQ. When will it receive it?

Mr. Speaker, as I said a few minutes ago, we had excellent meetings with the industry yesterday.

The new business risk management program was the foresight of this government and it would be there to assist the industry when these types of things unfortunately happen. We are looking at other things to build upon that as well.

I repeat, the cattlemen told me last night that the meetings yesterday were excellent.

Mr. Speaker, with a $10 billion surplus, there is simply no excuse why the government should stand around and watch the western beef industry implode.

We have two quarantines in effect here in Canada at the present time. We have one in the beef industry, primarily in western Canada, and we have the SARS outbreak in Toronto.

Three months after the economic disaster hit, tourism workers and businesses are still looking for their first red penny in compensation. Why is the government now considering withholding $800 million, saying in effect that Toronto's economic disaster is not real?

Don BoudriaLiberalMinister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons

Mr. Speaker, the member should know that as we are speaking, two ministers are in Toronto to make announcements with the provincial government, showing our resolve, in addition to all the other things that we have done over recent weeks, to assist the people of Toronto, to assist the people if that part of the country, in this most difficult time in which they have been living lately.

Mr. Speaker, having judges allegedly on the take is the most recent in a string of scandals to hit the Department of Citizenship and Immigration.

Last month, a Yellowknife immigration officer wrongly demanded proof of citizenship during an RCMP road check. Prior to that, a federal court found the department misled Parliament about the number of immigrants caught in a backlog.

What specific steps has the minister taken to address this litany of scandals?

Mr. Speaker, I can address that omnibus question by saying that we are doing our job. We are doing what it takes. When there is a mistake, we say it. I was pretty clear on the Yellowknife case.

Besides that, I have full confidence in the officials in my department. They are doing a tremendous job. Immigration is the centrepiece of any policy for the future. We are working closely with everybody, every agent, to make sure this country will have its share.

Mr. Speaker, a business in my riding, Scierie Lac-Saint-Jean Inc., has been added to the list of victims of the softwood lumber crisis. That makes 85 more employees without work today. At this rate, the Americans will be able to celebrate their victory before a WTO or NAFTA decision is ever made.

What is the government waiting for to take action and support the workers by improving the employment insurance fund and to help the companies by implementing phase two of its aid package?

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, we have a program to support our workers. Let me remind the hon. member of the government program on the softwood lumber dispute: $110 million for research and development; $29.7 million for Canada's offshore markets; $71 million to assist workers; $110 million for the national softwood industry community adjustment; $20 million for the advocacy program; $15 million for the softwood lumber association.

The hon. member should recognize that these announcements are helping the softwood lumber industry across the country.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Human Resources Development has a very simple way to alleviate the effects of the softwood lumber crisis. She could extend the transitional measures that come to an end on October 5, thereby allowing more workers to qualify for EI benefits and for a longer time.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated earlier, part of the softwood lumber package includes $71 million to assist displaced workers. We want to make sure that the workers who are laid off can benefit. We understand the difficulty the workers are facing in the softwood lumber industry and we are doing everything we can.

However, we do have a program in place and it is working. As we have said, if we need more, that is something we are monitoring very closely.

Mr. Speaker, the terrorist group Hamas has announced that it has cut off ceasefire talks with the Palestinian authority. The declared goal of Hamas is to trash the road map process and to eliminate the state of Israel through a murderous campaign of terror.

Hamas could not exist without support from regimes in the region, such as Iran and Syria, yet our government has publicly said and done nothing to pressure these states to end all sponsorship of terror.

Will the Prime Minister today finally take a public stand and demand specifically that Syria, Iran and others in the region cut off all support for Hamas?

Mr. Speaker, as usual the hon. member phrases his question in a way that suggests the government does nothing on these issues. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it is exactly opposite.

Every time I have met with the foreign minister of Iran and every time the Prime Minister has spoken with the Iranian authorities we have insisted that they stop their support of terror. We do that publicly and we do it privately. We use the contacts that we have with all governments in the world to stop terror.

It is a totally false indication to the House and to the Canadian public to suggest that we do anything else. We will continue to pursue those in a positive way.

Mr. Speaker, the Canadian government has been absent on the issue of peace in the Middle East. The foreign minister says that it is a good thing but when it is time for action and to put meaning behind those words, the Liberals run for cover.

Now that Prime Ministers Abbas and Sharon have agreed to President Bush's road map, what steps is the Canadian government taking to ensure that both sides live up to the agreement?

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member knows, as the spokesperson for this area in the House, the government has representation both in Tel Aviv and in Ramallah. We work closely with the authorities. We have constantly urged upon the Palestinian Authority to engage in a positive dialogue with Israel to ensure its security. We have worked closely with our Israeli compatriots to say that they should go for the road map and accept the obligations under it.

The government is active. Canadians want us to be active in this. I can assure him and the House that the Prime Minister, myself and all of us with responsibilities in that area will be pursuing the possibility of peace. We congratulate, strongly, President Bush on his--

Mr. Speaker, we, within the Department of the Solicitor General, on all these issues relating to any individual, want to ensure that due process has been followed and that all the laws of the land are being followed.

Mr. Speaker, until that time, does the minister plan on transferring Mr. Duterville to another penitentiary so that he can enjoy the fundamental rights that are entrenched in the charter for all citizens of this country?

Mr. Speaker, within Correctional Service Canada we have a system, basically, of checks and balances and review to ensure that people who are incarcerated within those prisons are not put in a position of harm. There are criteria that we follow within the correctional service system to ensure that the individuals are incarcerated where there is less potential of harm happening to them, and that the penalties that they were charged for--